The 2030 Agenda is universal, holistic and indivisible, with a core principle to leave no one behind. The achievement of SDG 4 – ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all – plays a central role in building sustainable, inclusive and resilient societies. While education is most explicitly formulated as a stand-alone goal (SDG4) in the 2030 Agenda, it also has close links with all the other SDGs and the 2030 Agenda as a whole. There are a number of education-related targets and indicators in other SDGs, including health and well-being (Target 3.7), gender equality (Target 5.6), decent work (Target 8.6), responsible consumption and growth (Target 12.8), and climate change mitigation (Target 13.3).

Progress has been made towards achieving SDG 4. There are new knowledge horizons, new challenge sand new opportunities for the provision of quality education and lifelong learning for all. The context is also changing with new technologies and skills demands, population trends as well as economic shocks and environmental degradation. Many barriers to education access and educational outcomes remain in place and there continues to be challenges to the monitoring of progress remain. Since education is not only an integral part of, but also a key enabler for sustainable development, it needs to be included in national development plans and strategies for achieving all the SDGs. Education is also related to strengthening solidarity and partnerships.

What are some practical ways to improve access to quality education and life-long learning and deliver genuine impact both on people and sustainable development? Which ones can be scaled up or replicated for success?

Which groups are the easiest/most difficult to reach and what can be done to ensure that no one is left behind in access to quality education and learning or teacher training?

What actions can countries take to monitor the quality of education and ensure better learning outcomes?

Which are the most critical interlinkages between SDG 4 and other goals and targets across the 2030 Agenda? How can co-benefits be promoted and trade-offs reduced?

How do learning systems need to change to match a rapidly changing world with technological shifts, global integration and climate pressures?

John McLaughlin is Deputy Minister of New Brunswick’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (Anglophone Sector). He is also President and CEO of Atlantic Education International, a government agency that oversees, plans for and directs international education opportunities and programmes for the Province of New Brunswick. Over the course of his career, he has also been a teacher, Director of Education, Superintendent of Schools, and Assistant Deputy Minister. He holds his Masters of Education and Bachelor of Education degrees from the University of New Brunswick, and his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo. His areas of professional interest include literacy education, indigenous education, international education, personalised learning and global citizenship. He currently represents CMEC on two OECD committees, the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, and the Education Policy Committee (EDPC), on which he serves as a member of the governing bureau. He is also the chair of the Board of Atlantic Education International, and a member of the boards of Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority and New Brunswick Elementary Literacy Foundation.

Her Excellency Inga Rhonda King, who comes to diplomacy from the private sector, has lived and worked in several Caribbean countries, the United States of America, and China. She is a small business owner, business strategist, the author of three books, and a management accountant with more than two decades of professional experience. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and chemistry, is the immediate past chair of the Investment Promotions Agency of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Invest SVG), and a former Honorary Consul for Portugal to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Since becoming Permanent Representative in September 2013, Ambassador King has held several leadership roles which include:

Chair/Spokesperson of L69 (2016 - present), the largest reform group for the Security Council Reform of the United Nations.

Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council for the period 2017-2018.

Chair of the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly of the 71st Session (2016 - 2017). At the time of her chairmanship, she was only the second woman to chair this committee in the history of the United Nations.

Immediate-past chair of the Island Women Open Network (IWON) (2014 - July 2018). The IWON is tasked with ensuring gender-mainstreaming in the renewable energy sector of Small Island Developing States by building capacity at the grassroots and community level. The IWON is a part of the SIDS DOCK Secretariat platform. SIDS Dock is a UN registered SIDS International Organization.

Vice Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development

As Vice Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation (QF), Her Excellency Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani spearheads its mission to support the economic and social development of Qatar, through initiatives and programs in three core areas: education, science and research, and community development.

Her Excellency embodies the cycle of education that QF has created, having graduated from Qatar Academy – the first school to be established by QF – and later continued her own academic journey at HEC Paris in Qatar, a QF partner university. She is a passionate believer in the power of education to shape lives, strengthen societies, and build a better world; and, as a leader, active global citizen, and mother, an exemplification of how women are at the forefront of Qatar’s transformative journey.

In her role at QF, Her Excellency leads a diverse, multicultural organization with a 5,000-strong workforce, comprising member organizations spanning the spectrum of pre-university and higher education; research, development, and innovation; health and wellbeing; social engagement; sustainability; art and music; cultural heritage, and other aspects of community development, as well as global QF initiatives.

Her Excellency also serves on the boards of several education and cultural institutes, including Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar National Library, HEC Paris – as a member of its International Board - and Teach for Qatar, an organization that, in alignment with QF’s vision and mission, aims to develop the quality of education in Qatar.

From 2008-2013, Her Excellency served as Director of the Office of His Highness the Father Amir of Qatar, playing a key role in Qatar’s bid strategy to host the FIFA World Cup 2022; and Chairperson of both the Joint Oversight Board and the Executive Committee of the College of the North Atlantic - Qatar.

Her previous roles have also included Vice Chairperson and Chairperson of the Executive Committee of Qatar’s Supreme Education Council (now the Ministry of Education and Higher Education).

Her Excellency holds an Executive MBA from HEC Paris in Qatar, a Master of Arts degree in Human Rights from University College London in the UK, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University in the US.

Professor Kazuhiro Yoshida is professor and director, Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education, Hiroshima University, Japan. Presently, he is co-chair and a member (Asia and the Pacific region) of SDG-Education 2030 Steering Committee. He is a member of Japan National Commission for UNESCO. His research interest is in education policies and reform in developing countries, aid effectiveness, and skills development, with extensive publication. He is secretary of Africa-Asia University Dialogue on Educational Development, a UNITWIN network where 29 universities conduct joint research on education issues. He has professional experiences in over 30 developing countries, through his services at the World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, development consultant and private companies. He advises the Japanese government on policy matters on international education cooperation. He holds MPhil in development studies from University of Sussex. His recent publications include:

Yoshida, K. and Van der Walt JL (2018) The policy-implementation-results linkage for education development and aid effectiveness in the Education 2030 era. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, v48 n1 p39-55

Henrietta H. Fore became UNICEF’s seventh Executive Director on 1 January 2018. She has worked to champion economic development, education, health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in a public service, private sector and non-profit leadership career that spans more than four decades.

From 2007 to 2009, Ms. Fore served as the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Director of United States Foreign Assistance. The first woman to serve in these roles, she was responsible for managing $39.5 billion of U.S. foreign assistance annually, including support to peoples and countries recovering from disaster and building their futures economically, politically and socially.

Earlier in her career at USAID, Ms. Fore was appointed Assistant Administrator for Asia and Assistant Administrator for Private Enterprise (1989-1993). She served on the Boards of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest award the Secretary of State can bestow.

From 2005 to 2007, Ms. Fore served as Under Secretary of State for Management, the Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Department of State. She was responsible for the staff, resources, facilities, technology and security of the Department and was the Secretary of State’s principal advisor on management issues. She oversaw a management budget of $3.6 billion, 7,200 employees, 30,000 contractors and 267 embassies and posts in 172 countries.

From 2001 to 2005, Ms. Fore was the 37th Director of the United States Mint in the U.S. Department of Treasury, managing the world's largest manufacturer of coins, medals and coin products. In 2005, she received the Alexander Hamilton Award, the Department of Treasury’s highest honor.

Immediately prior to her appointment with UNICEF, Ms. Fore was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Holsman International, a manufacturing and investment company. She also served on the boards of a number of domestic and international public corporations, including as Global Co-Chair of the Asia Society, Chair of the Middle East Investment Initiative, and Co-Chair of WomenCorporateDirectors. She also served on the boards of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Aspen Institute, the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) and the Center for Global Development (CGD).

Ms. Fore has a Bachelor of Arts in History from Wellesley College and a Master of Science in Public Administration from the University of Northern Colorado. She is married and has four children.

Former Minister of Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education (advocate on gender issues in education and an expert in the right to education)

A new Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Dr. Koumbou Boly Barry, from Burkina Faso , took office on 1st August 2016 following her appointment at the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council.

Dr. Boly Barry holds a PhD in Economic History from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. She is the former Minister of Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso and has consulted widely for various governments and international institutions on the right to education. Dr. Boly has been an advocate on gender issues in education. She also has ample knowledge and experience in training and research, a visiting professor at University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, University of Louvain La Neuve Belgium, a lecturer at Ouagadougou University ,Burkina Faso ,Vitoria University, Brazil and Fribourg University, Switzerland. She replaces Mr.Kishore Singh from India.

Madeleine Zúñiga Castillo is a PhD in Education from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, specializing in languages and cultures in education, with a Master of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, USA and post-graduate studies in Sociolinguistics at the University of Essex and the University of London, and Applied Linguistics to Education at the University of Aberystwith in Wales, Great Britain. She was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics of the National University of San Marcos and visiting professor universities in Bolivia and Ecuador. She is the author of several articles and publications on intercultural bilingual education issues for indigenous peoples and an independent consultant on the same subject for UNESCO, UNICEF, GTZ. Founding member of Foro Educativo, a national NGO specialized in educational policy proposals and has been its Vice President and member of the Board on two occasions. Vice President of the EFA National Forum from 2002 to 2005. Since 2006 she is the National Coordinator of the Peruvian Campaign for the Right to Education, CPDE. She has been Board member of the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education, CLADE. Currently, Madeleine represents a national coalition at the Steering Committee of CCNGO Education 2030 and is the Vice President of the Global Campaign for Education.

Ms Stefania Giannini was appointed Assistant Director-General for Education in May 2018, becoming the top United Nations official in the field of education. In this position, she provides strategic vision and leadership for UNESCO’s Education Sector in coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the Education 2030 Agenda, encapsulated in Sustainable Development Goal 4.

She has devoted her career to promoting education as a fundamental human right, through the importance of language, lifelong learning, culture, freedom of expression and identity, in an effort to ensure more inclusive and equal societies.

With an academic background is in the Humanities (PhD in Linguistics), Ms Giannini became Professor of Linguistics in 1992 and served as Rector of the University for Foreigners of Perugia (2004 – 2012), being one of the first female Rectors and the youngest at that time in Italy.

At the same time, she was member of the Selection Committee of the Erasmus Mundus programme in Brussels (2005 – 2009), the person responsible for international relations in the Committee of the Conference of Italian University Rectors (2006 – 2010) and a member of the National Commission for the Promotion of Italian Culture Abroad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006 – 2011).

Later on, in her role as Senator of the Republic of Italy (2013 – 2018) and Minister of Education, Universities and Research (2014 – 2016), she developed and implemented a structural reform of the Italian education system, centred on social inclusion and targeting cultural awareness.

Ms Giannini also chaired the Education and Competitiveness Council of the European Union during the Italian Presidency (July – December 2014), working to promote the importance of creativity, cultural heritage and innovation as tools for dialogue between diverse populations, with a view to preventing radicalization and extremism.

Susan Hopgood is both President of Education International (EI) and the Federal Secretary of the Australian Education Union (AEU).

Susan started her career teaching mathematics in secondary schools in Victoria, Australia, in 1974. She joined what is now the AEU as a young teacher, and became an active member and union representative at the school, regional and state levels. In 1985, she began working with the union in the position of women’s officer, a job she held until 1993.

Since then, Susan has held a number of positions in the education union, such as branch general secretary, AEU federal women’s officer, and deputy federal secretary. She was elected federal secretary of the AEU in 2006, the first woman to achieve that position.

In her work at EI, Susan is active at both international and regional levels. She was elected as an EI vice-president at the EI World Congress in Thailand, in 2001, and then re-elected in Brazil, in 2004, and in Berlin, Germany, in 2007. She was appointed as president by the Executive Board in 2009 when the then president, Thulas Nxesi, resigned to be become a South African Minister. In 2011, she was elected unopposed as president at the EI World Congress in South Africa.

Active at the regional level, Susan was elected vice-chairperson of EI’s Asia-Pacific Regional Committee in 2000, and was twice re-elected, in 2003 and 2006.

She has also been involved in the Council of Pacific Education, holding the position of vice-president from 1998 to 2006.